Paul Ceglia is missing after removing GPS device

By John Anderson and Ryan PapasergeThe Evening Tribune

Monday

Mar 9, 2015 at 6:22 PMMar 10, 2015 at 2:46 PM

Paul Ceglia, the Wellsville man entrenched in legal battles with Mark Zuckerberg over ownership of Facebook, has a warrant out for his arrest after he removed his GPS device, sources confirmed to The Evening Tribune Monday.

U.S. Marshals are working on the case and law enforcement officials expressed concern Monday that Ceglia is out of the country.

"We are actively pursuing (Paul Ceglia) as a fugitive," Charles F. Salina, U.S. Marshal for the Western District of New York, told The Evening Tribune Tuesday. Salina couldn't comment on details of the investigation.

An additional hearing in U.S. District Court in New York Tuesday resulted in the revocation of Ceglia's bail, according to Bloomberg's Bob Van Voris.

Ceglia's criminal trial was set to begin on May 4 in U.S. District Court regarding an alleged attempt to interfere with the justice system.

Reuters reported that District Judge Vernon Broderick said during the hearing that Ceglia's disappearance is "something it seems like took a fair amount of planning."

According to a friend of the Ceglia family, Paul's parents, Carmine and Vera Ceglia have also left the area and may have left the country.

The parents, who have traveled in the past, said they were leaving for around three weeks, did not say where they were going or when they were returning, the Daily Reporter learned.

Paul Argentieri, a Hornell-based attorney who serves as a member of Ceglia's legal team, deferred comment Monday to criminal defense lawyers Robert Fogg and Gil Messina.

"We do not know his current whereabouts and we are told officials are investigating," Messina told CNBC on Monday.

Meanwhile, Fogg told Bloomberg.com that the GPS bracelet was found in Ceglia's home and he "hasn't got a clue" where his client is.

Ceglia's criminal trial was set to begin on May 4 in U.S. District Court regarding an alleged attempt to interfere with the justice system. However, an additional hearing had been set for today in New York.

Ceglia previously traveled to Ireland and lived there temporarily in 2011 in order to avoid Zuckerberg and the media.

“As you know Zuckerberg has seemingly stopped at nothing to try to slander me during this case so far and part of that has been their use of private investigators not just to investigate me, but far beyond that to harass me and my family daily,” Ceglia said in an email to the Wellsville Daily Reporter on Aug. 10, 2011. “From waking up to discover people hiding in (a) back field with binoculars, to being followed day-in and day-out by these guys, to coming home and finding a back window open that I know I personally locked causes what I can only say borders on paranoia and I refuse to let the bad guys win through intimidation tactics.”

However, Ceglia was forced to return to the U.S. in November of that year after Magistrate Judge Leslie Foschio ordered him to explain the disappearance of six computer hardware devices related to the Facebook case.

Ceglia's apparent disappearance comes 17 days after U.S. District Judge Vernon Broderick approved subpoenas on Feb. 20 forcing Zuckerberg and Facebook to divulge all "contracts, agreements and addendums" between Ceglia and Zuckerberg or their companies from Jan. 1, 2003 to July 29, 2004 by March 15.

In addition, Zuckerberg was forced to release all electronic communications regarding agreements during that same time frame.

At the time, Argentieri told The Evening Tribune that the subpoenas were a victory heading into the upcoming criminal trial, which is based upon what Foschio believed to be fabrications in some of the documents used in the case.

"Zuckerberg is now in a position that he never fully considered when he engineered the arrest of Paul Ceglia by falsely promoting a narrative not supported by authentic evidence," Argentieri told The Evening Tribune on Feb. 20.

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